If you are looking for love this Valentine's day, you would do well to ensure your home is looking its best!

93% of people rate a clean and tidy home as an "essential" quality in a partner and almost 90% said the same of a well maintained home. Twice as many respondents prefer cosy homes to trendy ones, but fashion beats size hands down.

Warren Bright, propertyfinder.com's happily married Chief Executive commented:

Seeing a home of a partner for the first time can make or break a relationship - first impressions are everything. A home can be indicative of a person's character, but also reflective of any bad habits - at the very least, a quick clean and tidy is highly advisable before inviting a date back to your place for the first time.

Men are from mars

Other revelations from the survey were that men and women look for quite different qualities in a parnter's home. Whilst both sexes specify they look for a partner with clean, tidy,well maintained home, men are much more likely to judge on its size and material contents. 22% more men than women rated a large home as an essential quality in a partner and 12% more men than women look for a partner whose home is expensively furnished.

Warren Bright continued:

Choosing a partner is very much like buying a home. In fact, the qualities people loof for in a home closely mirror what one would assume are people's immediate wants in a partner. Is it any surprise that men place far more importance on size and wealth that women do?

The survey also shows that 71% of 18-25 year olds have loved with a parnter and that 89% of people have lived with a partner by the time they are 30. Nearly 50% of couples moving in together have known each other less than nine months before they take the plunge and the majoprity move out of individual rented accommodation to buy a love nest together.

Warren Bright concluded:

With house prices and interest rates so high now, buying with a partner is often the only way to make home purchase affordable and people are moving in together after only short periods of knowing one another in order to get on the property ladder. Some may say "sct in haste and repent at leisure" but our survey suggestss otherwise. 72% of couples surveyed said that moving in together had had a positive effect on their relationship and 75% of those living with a partner plan to marry them. Perhaps the Monetary Policy Committee has been playing cupid with all the recent rate rises!